Flames of the Heart
by DBZfanalways
Summary: "Here, I thought you might want this" and she felt a slim piece of wood being slipped into her pocket. Her eyes widened, her attention being pulled from her daughter, he had grabbed her wand for her, which meant he knew what it was. She slowly turned her head to look at her daughter's savoir for the first time. "Malfoy?"
1. Chapter 1

**Flames of the Heart**

**A/N: **Wow I haven't written in forever! But this idea hit me and I felt the need to write it down. Drop me a review to let me know what you think, it doesn't have to be anything fancy.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**Chapter 1**

Hermione stood in her kitchen washing the dinner dishes. Her daughter already sound asleep in her bed. She looked down at her hands, it felt good to do things the muggle way sometimes, it gave her time to just think. It had been two years since Ron's disappearance. Two years since Hermione's life had changed forever.

She and Ron had married just months after the war. The war was finally over, they had admitted their feelings to each other, and the future looked bright for the young couple. They spent two years settling into marriage, buying a house and settling into jobs at the ministry. Ron and Harry had both become auras; Hermione had obtained a comfortable position with the Protection of Magical Creatures Rights Department. Hermione had tracked her parents down, restoring their memories and explaining what had happened and why she had sent them away. They were a bit upset with her at first but forgave her quickly, happy to have her in their life once again. Hermione couldn't be happier to finally have them back.

Shortly after their two year anniversary, they found out that Hermione was pregnant. They were over the moon with excitement. They left the sex of the baby to be a surprise, which meant a lot of betting in the Weasley family over what the new baby would be, the majority saying a boy. A month after Hermione's 20th birthday, on October 19th 1999, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who they named Rose. Ron and Hermione couldn't be happier to be parents.

In November of 2000 a team of auras responded to an anonymous tip about a death eater hide out. The morning of the raid was the last time she ever laid eyes on her husband.

_Hermione smiled down at the babbling baby girl in her high chair, who was happily munching on a chopped up banana while watching her mother bustle around the kitchen getting her father's lunch packed. Hermione had been hesitant at the idea of not going back to work, but after laying eyes on her daughter for the first time, she knew she wouldn't be able to leave her._

_Hearing her baby girl yell "Da!" she turned around to see Ron dressed in his work robes ready to leave. _

"_Good morning" she said walking over to give him a kiss. "Your lunch is ready" she told him, handing it to him._

"_Thank you Mione" he said giving her a heartwarming smile. "I'll do my best not to be late tonight, but we have a raid today, and that means lots of paperwork" he said with a sigh._

_Hermione's brow furrowed with worry over her husband. "Please be careful"_

"_Don't worry about me, it'll be a cake walk" and with that he kissed her, turned around to kiss Rose on the head "I love you Princess Rose, be good for Mommy and take a nap today." He walked out of the room and Hermione heard the floo._

_At midnight that night Hermione paced nervously in front of the fire place. Ron had said he would be late but, but he had never been this late. She had a bad feeling that was twisting her stomach into knots. She sat down on the couch and took some deep breathes. "Calm down Hermione." she told herself, leaning over and putting her face in her hands. Her head snapped up at the sound of the floo. Harry stepped into her living room, his robes tattered and burned in places, his eyes rimmed red._

"_Harry? What are you doing here? Where's Ron?" she asked becoming frantic. Harry stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. Fear gripped Hermione so tight she couldn't breathe. "Harry? What's happened?"_

"_I'm so sorry Hermione." He sobbed out. "It was a trap, they were expecting us. The second we walked through the door, it was pure chaos." He hugged her tighter. "We fought well and caught most of them, but…" he struggled with the words he was trying to spit out. "Hermione we don't know what happened, we can't find him."_

_Hermione pulled out of Harry's hold and looked him in the eyes. "What do you mean you can't find him?"_

_Harry closed in eyes, "Ron, he just, disappeared. When the fight ended I noticed his absence. I alerted everyone, we spent hours turning the entire area upside down but were unable o find any sign of what happened to him." He drew in a shaky breath._

_Hermione sank to the floor, her body too weak to hold her up any longer. "No, he, he can't…"_

_Harry kneeled down and pulled her into his arms again. "We aren't giving up Hermione, we're still searching for him. Maybe one of the death eaters took him with them when they escaped, we'll find him" he promised. Harry stayed with her the rest of the night, there on the living room floor while she cried._

Hermione pulled out of the painful memory. They spent two months searching for Ron, they had captured the stray death eaters from that day, and questioned them relentlessly, but no one ever discovered what had happened to Ron. Ron was pronounced dead, and they held a funeral for him, burying an empty casket. Hermione supposed it was meant to give closure, but she was still kept up at night wondering what had become of her husband.

Rose had been too young to understand what had happened. She had asked for her Da for weeks, and Hermione would show her pictures of Ron and do her best not to cry. Slowly Rose stopped asking for Ron all together, his face becoming nothing more than a face in a photograph to her. She knew it would happen, Harry had been older than Rose when he lost his parents, and he had no memories of them. It broke Hermione's heart to know that her little girl would never know the wonderful man that was her Daddy.

She finished drying and putting away the dishes and wiped down the counter. She turned around to the full trash can and sighed. Rose was out for the night, she would just run down quickly and toss it in the dumpster, if she waited until morning the whole apartment would smell like trash. She pulled the bag out and tied it close, replacing it with a new one. She crossed her tidy living room, it was roomy enough, though not as nice as the one in the house she and Ron had bought together. After losing Ron she was forced to sell their beautiful home, unable to pay for it without Ron's income. It had hurt to let it go, like she was losing one of the only pieces she had left of her husband. Grabbing her keys she walked to the door and slipped out, careful not to let the door shut loud and wake Rose. She locked the door just to be safe and headed to the elevator that was located down the hall, normally she would take the stairs but she was in a hurry to get back to Rose. "Shoot I forgot my wand", she cursed under her breath, she hesitated a moment before deciding that she didn't really need it just to take out the trash, going back would just waste more time. She pressed the down button and waited for the doors to slide open. Stepping in she pressed the button for the ground level and waited for the elevator to descend the ten floors, thankfully not stopping on any other floors. She exited the elevator and stepped quickly to the door that led to the ally where the dumpster was kept, passing someone on their way back from the same task and giving them a small smile. Stepping into the crisp November air she walked to the dumpster and heaved the bag up over the top.

Before she could even turn back for the door there was a deafening explosion, Hermione jumped and gave a small yelp as glass from some of the upper story windows rained down on her. She could hear screams coming from inside her apartment building and looking up saw smoke pouring from the windows that had exploded, flames starting to lick the window frames. She raced back to the door wrenching it open. People were already filling the lobby trying to get out in their panic. She reached for her wand, planning to apparate up to her apartment but found her pocket empty, her faced drained of color. Alarms were sounding and the power had been knocked out by the explosion. She ran to the stairs trying to push her way through the people to get back upstairs to Rose. She was knocked down as a woman shoved passed her, another woman stepping on her hand, she cried out as she felt her pinky finger break under the woman's high heel. A man passing her scooped her up running out of the building with her.

"NO! Stop I have to get to my daughter! Please stop!" she cried, struggling against the man's grip.

"What floor is she on?"

"The tenth!" she cried in desperation.

The man gave her a pity filled look. "There's no way, the stairs are completely blocked from the ninth floor up. You'll never make it. I'm sorry."

"You don't understand! I have to get to her!" she yelled at the man. An officer that had arrived on the scene over heard her and approached.

"What's wrong Miss?" he asked her.

"It's my daughter! She's in the apartment alone on the tenth floor! Please I need to get to her!"

"Miss, try to calm down, help is on the way." Hermione just stared at him for a moment. Turning her gaze to the top floor of her apartment building she could see terrified neighbors hanging out their window screaming for help. She looked to the window that she knew to be hers, in the window she saw the small scared face of Rose. She tried to run back to the building, but the officer grabbed her around the waist, holding her back. "Miss I cannot let you go back into that building!" Hermione sagged under her own weight. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have left her daughter up there alone? If she had stayed she would have her wand and would have easily apparated them away, or hopped into their floo. But her wand was not with her, it was sitting on the coffee table, completely useless to her at the moment.

She turned as she heard the sirens of the fire trucks. The firefighters jumped off quickly, pulling their gear from the truck, several other trucks pulling up as well. Hermione stomped on the officer's foot, gaining her escape and ran towards a group of three firefighters that were already heading into the building.

"Stop! Please my daughter!" one of them stopped and turned to look at her. She grabbed onto the arm of his jacket. "Please my daughter is alone on the tenth floor, apartment 10E. Please help her!"

"I'll do everything I can, I promise" was the reply, muffled by his mask, before he turned back and strode quickly into the building behind the other two.

Hermione spent the next twenty minutes doing her best not to hyperventilate, keeping her eyes trained on the door. "Oh God please let them find her" she sobbed wrapping her arms tightly around herself. She could no longer see Rose's face in the window, she had no way of knowing whether or not her daughter was still alive.

Suddenly there was movement at the door, a firefighter came running down the front steps with a small girl in his arms. "Rose!" Hermione shouted running to the ambulance that her daughter had been taken to. She had been laid on the stretcher and was coughing; her face was covered in soot. The paramedic was placing an oxygen mask on her face while another was getting her vitals. "Please step back ma'am, we need to make sure she's stable." A hand rested on Hermione's shoulder, pulling her back a couple steps and out of the way as she watched the men checking out her daughter, she wanted so badly to just scoop her up.

"She's going to be okay" A male voice said to her. "We found her in time, she inhaled some smoke, but she's going to be fine." He told her in a soft voice, trying to reassure her. "Here, I thought you might want this" and she felt a slim piece of wood being slipped into her pocket. Her eyes widened, her attention being pulled from her daughter, he had grabbed her wand for her, which meant he knew what it was. She slowly turned her head to look at her daughter's savoir for the first time. Her brown eyes immediately locked with his beautiful silver gray eyes. She took in his pale pointed face that had soot on it, and then his platinum blond hair. He took in her shocked expression and chuckled, a smile lighting up his face. "Hey Granger"

"Malfoy?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Flames of the Heart**

**A/N: **I meant to have this out last week, but it just didn't happen. Sorry for the wait. Thank you so much to those who reviewed! It meant a lot to me. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**Chapter 2**

Hermione walked down the sidewalk, a bag that held a container of cookies in one hand, and her other hand clasped tightly around Rose's small hand. She looked down at her daughter, who was intently taking in the buildings, and passing people and cars. A small smile formed on her lips at the sight of her Rose's wide inquisitive eyes. Her daughter, so full of life and curiosity, it pained Hermione to think that just weeks ago she had nearly lost her.

Rose had spent a day being observed in the hospital, before being released. She had a bit of a cough for the first week, but that was to be expected after all of the smoke she was exposed to due to the fire. It had been two weeks since the fire, two long stressful weeks. Hermione and Rose had been staying with Harry, Ginny, and their three children, James, Albus, and Lily while they looked for a new place to live. She was thankful for all of their help, but it was a bit cramped with all of them under one roof, Hermione wanted her own place again, and room to breathe. She was having to tap into a lot of the savings her and Ron had put aside, which had caused much worry for Hermione. On top of finding a new home and replacing all of their belongings, she now had to start thinking about looking for a job to support them. She had done well so far living off of savings, writing educational articles here and there for books or the Prophet to bring in a bit of extra money.

It was stressful, but Hermione was thankful all the same. If it weren't for Malfoy, she wouldn't have her daughter to worry over anymore. Malfoy. Now that was a name that had caused a lot of confusion for her over the last two weeks. She had been shocked to see that it was him, in a muggle position, risking his life for the lives of others. But the way he interacted with her had been the most shocking part.

_Suddenly there was movement at the door, a firefighter came running down the front steps with a small girl in his arms. "Rose!" Hermione shouted running to the ambulance that her daughter had been taken to. She had been laid on the stretcher and was coughing; her face was covered in soot. The paramedic was placing an oxygen mask on her face while another was getting her vitals. "Please step back ma'am, we need to make sure she's stable." A hand rested on Hermione's shoulder, pulling her back a couple steps and out of the way as she watched the men checking out her daughter, she wanted so badly to just scoop her up._

"_She's going to be okay" A male voice said to her. "We found her in time, she inhaled some smoke, but she's going to be fine." He told her in a soft voice, trying to reassure her. "Here, I thought you might want this" and she felt a slim piece of wood being slipped into her pocket. Her eyes widened, her attention being pulled from her daughter, he had grabbed her wand for her, which meant he knew what it was. She slowly turned her head to look at her daughter's savoir for the first time. Her brown eyes immediately locked with his beautiful silver gray eyes. She took in his pale pointed face that had soot on it, and then his platinum blond hair. He took in her shocked expression and chuckled, a smile lighting up his face. "Hey Granger"_

"_Malfoy?" she gasped. "Wh-What are you doing here?"_

_He quirked an eyebrow, "Working" Rose gave a whimper and Hermione's head snapped back to her. "She's going to be okay, she's scared, but ok." Hermione just nodded._

"_DRACO! Get over here! You need to get ready to go back in!" another male voice called. Draco patted Hermione's shoulder lightly before leaving. She watched them load Rose into the ambulance and then climbed in herself, taking Roses hand in hers._

Malfoy working with muggles, and risking his own life for the lives of others. Now she had seen everything. Malfoy just happened to be her and Roses reason for their current outing. Rose had decided that they should make cookies for all the firefighter and bring them to them as a way to say thank you. Hermione had agreed, she would like the chance to thank Malfoy, and after several phone calls she managed to find out which station he worked at and when he would be there. They finally arrived at station three, the bay doors were open.

"Look Mummy! Fire trucks!" Rose shouted in excitement, Hermione laughed at the small girl jumping up and down, pointing to the large trucks. She looked up and into the bay, her eyes locking with a pair a grey ones.

Draco finished up the paperwork from the call they had just gotten back with and filed it away. Entering the bay he crossed to the racks against the wall and reorganized his gear, making sure it was ready for the next call before making his rounds around the trucks, ensuring they too were ready to go.

He sighed, the previous call had been a waste of time. The alarm was set off at the local high school, a student goofing around of course. He didn't mind attending the call, but the cat calls from the young high school girls had been mildly irritating. He felt he now knew what women felt like while passing a construction site.

An excited squeal caught his attention, looking out towards the door he saw a small girl jumping up in down in excitement, her mother standing next to her smiling at her daughters antics. She looked up at him and he made his way over to them.

"I bet you're Rose." He said crouching down in from of the little girl, she nodded her head vigorously. "Did you come to visit and see the fire trucks?"

"Yes! Yes!" She shouted making Draco chuckle.

"Rose there's no need to shout" Hermione told her in amusement.

"But Mom!" Draco mocked playfully. "It's SO exciting!" He offered his hand to Rose. "Would you like a tour Rose?"

"Yes please!" She latched onto his hand and he led her to one of the trucks, opening the driver's door and picking her up to place her in the seat. Hermione followed, pulling out a camera and snapping a picture of Rose, a wide smile plastered on her face and her small hands wrapped around the steering wheel, kneeling in the seat.

A door on the far wall opened and a man's voice called out. "Draco! Is that you squealing like a little girl?" Draco shot the man a glare as he rounded the corner of the truck. Draco and Matt had been hired onto the department at the same time. He was older than Draco by about ten years, and a bit shorter and stockier than Draco's 6' tall, lean frame. He had thick dark hair and light brown eyes, and a thick mustache.

"No. It's little Miss Rose here." His friend looked up at the small girl. "Rose is the little girl we helped out of that apartment fire on 3rd street a couple weeks ago. Her and her mum came for a visit." Matt turned to Hermione then.

"Hi I'm Matt" he said holding out his hand. Hermione shook his hand giving him a smile.

"Hermione, nice to meet you" she replied, both of them turning back to Draco and Rose.

"So Rose," Draco started. "How old are you?"

"Free." She replied proudly.

"Free? I didn't realize you were for sale" he teased her.

"No! Free!" She yelled holding up three small fingers.

"Oh I see. Three, my mistake." He reached up and placed a helmet on her head, moving aside for Hermione to take a picture.

"Wow! It's heavy!" she exclaimed.

"Yes it is. It's very heavy and hard, it makes sure my head won't get hurt if something falls on it." He told her.

"Ohhhh." She said. "We brought you cookies!" Draco laughed at the sudden subject change.

"Did someone say cookies?" came the voice of someone else. Blake came around the corner joining the group. He was very tall, about 6' 2" and impossible skinny, with Sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was the youngest of their crew at only 20 years old. Draco insisted his stomach was a bottomless pit, the kid ate four times as much food as the other guys, and constantly complained he was hungry. Matt introduced him to Hermione.

"I did! Me and Mummy made them!" Rose told him. "Mummy and I" Hermione corrected her, holding up the bag in her hand. Draco took the helmet off Rose's head and scooped her up off of the seat, hoping down from the truck.

"Well then, we should go inside and have a cookie, and then you can have a look around the station." Draco told her, placing her on her feet. Rose's eyes lit up and she half dragged Draco to the door, causing the other three adults to laugh.

Draco brought Rose to the kitchen and sat her in one of the many chairs before turning to pull cups out of the cupboard.

"Why are there so many chairs in here?" she asked looking around the table that held no less than ten chairs.

"So all of the firefighters have a place to sit." He replied, sitting a cup in front of her. The others joined them and took a seat, Hermione pulling out the cookies and sitting them in the middle before pulling one out of Rose and sitting it on the napkin Draco had put in front of her. Draco sat down, thinking of how odd his current situation was. He was sitting at a table with Hermione "Gryffindor Princess" Granger having cookies. If anyone had told him he would be here six years ago, he would have suggested they be committed. But a lot had changed over the years. He had changed.

Draco had of course been arrested and tried, only saved by the testimony of Harry Potter. He may not have liked him during school, but he had to admit that he was thankful. Potter was the sole reason Draco and his mother were allowed to walk free. His father on the other hand was convicted of being a death eater, and a number of other charges that Draco tried his hardest not to think about. Though his father's conviction had been hard on his mother, Draco was glad he was gone from their lives. He was sick of his father controlling his every move; it was his fault that Draco had ever ended up with that damned mark on his arm, a constant reminder of the hideous past. His guilt over his past actions had actually lead Draco to seek a the career he was now in, it felt good to finally help people for a change, and working along side the very people he used to hate, helped Draco to prove to himself that he wasn't the monster he had feared himself to be.

"…is that's cool with you Drake?" He had zoned out and not even realized he was being spoken to.

"What?" he asked.

"I was going to take Rose and show her some of the rooms around the station. Unless you wanted to?" Blake asked him.

"Oh. Ya go ahead as long as it's okay with her mother. And stop calling me Drake" Blake had the annoying habit of calling him Drake all of the time and it drove him bloody insane.

"Oh it's fine with me" Hermione told him. The pair left, Rose jumping in excitement again, leaving behind Hermione, Draco and Matt. It had become awkward now, sitting across from the girl that he had tortured during school, the girl who knew about all of the awful things he had done. Matt shifted in his seat, feeling the tension that had settled in the room. Draco cleared his throat.

"It's been awhile since I've seen you. What is it, six years now?" he asked her in an attempt to make conversation.

"Yes, about that I think." She said giving a small nod.

"Wait." Matt cut in. "You two know each other?"

"We went to school together." Draco told him. Matt laughed.

"Well isn't that ironic. What are the odds right?" He said.

"Yes. It was quite the coincidence." Hermione said. "Thank you by the way, for saving Rose." She said looking Draco in the eye. "If there's anything I can ever do to pay you back, just name it, I definitely owe you one."

Draco shook his head. "No, no. I was doing my job, you don't owe me anything, the cookies are plenty." He told her with a smile. Hermione was about to protest when Matt cut in.

"I dunno Draco, you sure could do with a date for the banquet." Draco's eyes grew wide at his friend's suggestion. But Matt ignored him turning to Hermione. "The annual awards banquet is this Saturday, and Draco here has yet to find a date. That would be the perfect way to pay him back," Draco could feel the flush that was warming his face.

"Don't listen to him, you don't need to feel obligated to go." He rushed out, shooting a glare at Matt.

"Well you're going to look damn pathetic if you go by yourself, and you work every day until then, it's not like you have time to find a date."

"Date's aren't mandatory, and I'll look even more pathetic if I arrive with a girl who's there against her will won't I?"

"I'll go." Hermione cut in, Draco looked at her in surprise.

"Are you sure? Seriously you don't need to feel like you _have _to go." Draco told her.

"No really it's fine. I owe you one, beside, I'm sure it'll be interesting."

"Oh good! He'll pick you up at 6:30. I'm going to go make sure Blake hasn't lost Rose." Draco sat there with his mouth open slightly and watched Matt just walk out. Oh, he would be paying him back for this. It's not that he minded taking Granger with him, but considering their past, it was going to be one interesting night. He heard Hermione giggle.

"Catching fly's Malfoy?" He snapped his mouth shut.

"Very funny. Are sure about going? I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

"Actually I think it might be interesting, I'm looking forward to it. But do you mind if I meet you at your place? I can just floo over."

"Oh sure." He hopped up and grabbed some paper and a pen, writing down where he lived and handing to her.

"Thanks, that way I can get away while Rose is distracted and not upset her. Is there a dress code?" she asked.

"Oh, yes it's semi-formal. And we will be eating there." He told her.

She smiled at him. "Sounds good then, I'll be at your place at 6:30 this Saturday then."

Just then an alarm sounded and a radio went off… _station three, station three…structural fire, structural fire… flames showing…_

"That's my cue, see you Saturday." He told her, Blake came running into the room with Rose in his arms and handed her to Hermione before running back out on Draco's heels, headed for the bay.

Draco stepped into his boots and yanked his pants up, pulling the suspenders over his shoulders and tightening. He threw his helmet on his head and ran to the truck while pulling on his jacket. He jumped into the captain's seat, and they started pulling out. He saw Hermione and Rose standing on the sidewalk waving; he yanked down the window and waved back.

The call wasn't far from the station, the blazing lights and screaming sirens easily parted traffic, and within minutes they were there. As they rounded the corner, the building came into view. It was a fully involved fire, a good one at that.

"Let's go boys!" One of the other guys shouted as they came to a stop, all of them hopping out of the truck and jumping into action.

**A/N: **Thought you might find it funny to know that the cat calls at the high school actually happen. My husband is a firefighter, and every time they go they have girls screaming things at them lol. Sorry again for the wait on this chapter. It on my list of priorities, unfortunately it comes after the husband, three children, dog, turtles, and photography. But I will do my best!

Oh and since this story is firefighter themed, if anyone's interested, I just did a daddy and me firefighter themed photo shoot. If you want to see I have them on Facebook, just search Catherine Rose Photography. They are so cute!


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